


Stone and Ivy

by Sunshineandteddybears



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Bittersweet Ending, Curses, Don't worry, Fantasy AU, I combined the two, M/M, Zombie Apocalypse, apocalypse au, it can be done!!, no one we know dies, story telling narration, thats right
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 07:02:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29078298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunshineandteddybears/pseuds/Sunshineandteddybears
Summary: Once upon a time, a young man named Roman was locked away in a tower. Imprisoned to keep the world safe. That was until the day a mage from his past came to rescue him. Will he get to live happily ever after, or would doom be the price for his freedom?
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14
Collections: Sanders Sides 2020 Gift Exchange





	Stone and Ivy

Once upon a time, in a far away land, there was a tower. Within that tower, was a young man who had been held captive for many years. He could scarcely recall the life he had before the tower, the memories drifted further from his mind each passing day. The only link he had to the outside world was a window that overlooked a vast forest. Every day he looked out, listening to bird songs and watching trees sway in the breeze. Every day, he longed for freedom.

Then one day, a rescuer came.

He arrived on horseback, breaking through the foliage like a storm. The man in the tower was bewildered as he watched the stranger approach the tower’s brick. There was no way inside, no doors or lower windows. One needed magic or a very tall ladder to reach his connection to the world. 

“Who goes there?” he calls to the stranger, heart in his throat at seeing another human being after so long. 

“My name is Virgil,” the man far below calls out. “And I have come a long way to find you. Pray tell, is it you Roman? Please say it is so.” 

The captive man was surprised by those words as he squinted down at the stranger. No, he in fact was not a stranger, but someone known a lifetime ago. “No, surely it cannot be,” he called back. “Virgil was a quiet boy who was afraid of his own shadow. He’d never travel through unknown woods alone.” 

The stranger who was not a stranger was relieved by these words. “So it is you!” he exclaimed, and the one called Roman imagined a smile on his face. He was too far away to tell for certain. “I’ve come to rescue you!” Words Roman had longed to hear for many ages, but also dreaded with all his heart.

“No thank you!” Roman responded, pulse rushing in his ears as he gripped his windowsill. 

“What do you mean ‘no thank you’!?” Virgil demanded. The young man was taken aback by the rejection. He had traveled for a long time searching for the other, dreamt many nights of their reuniting. He had missed Roman so much over the years that past. 

“I mean ‘no thank you’! I will not be leaving.” Roman wrapped his arms around himself to push away the chill that suddenly took hold of him. There was no wind to blame however. “I am sorry you wasted your time in coming here, my friend, but there will be no rescue today.” 

“Then I’ll rescue you tomorrow!” Virgil retorted, stubborn. Just as Roman remembered. It would have put a smile on his face had fear not gripped him so. 

“And it will be for not then as well!” Roman was stubborn too, something Virgil remembered well. It led to many arguments in their days of boyhood, and he could feel a new one brewing. But it was a comfort to see at least some part of the one he missed dearly was still there. Furthermore, Virgil did not intend to lose this fight.

“We shall see!” he called back before dismounting his horse and making camp. Roman retreated into his tower in turn, both men silently stewing in the conflicting emotions that stormed inside them. 

Day passed into night. Night passed into morning. When Roman awoke, he thought it all a dream. Until he looked out his window and heard a call from down below. 

“Roman! I have come to rescue you!” Virgil had indeed been brought back into his life, and stayed despite his rejection. Roman thought his old friend a fool, but could not deny the warmth in his heart. 

“How do you even plan on getting me down?” he asked. Perhaps Virgil did not think his rescue through and be discouraged. Perhaps he would give up and leave Roman alone in his prison. Isolated. 

He ignored how much he hated the thought of that.

“I learned magic in the time you were away!” Virgil called, taking Roman away from his thoughts. “I will levitate myself up and carry you down!” The captive man had not suspected his friend would ever learn magic. He seemed so afraid of it when they were boys. He seemed so afraid of anything really. The thought of how he braved all those fears to come find Roman, it made his heart flutter. 

It also made his heart break.

Roman turned away from his window, wrapping his arms around himself before he called out his response. “I cannot go with you.” 

“Why not?” Virgil’s voice was much clearer. In fact, it was closer. The young mage had already begun his rescue plan while Roman had been lost in thought, reaching the window in short time with his magic. When Roman turned sharply at his voice, he came to truly face his friend for the first time in many years.

The two stared at each other silently, taking in all that had changed as they grew up apart.

Virgil was still scrawny as he had been as a boy, but his shoulders were broader. His dark curls were grown longer, covering part of his forehead. There were shadows beneath his dark eyes, a sign he hadn’t slept well in many moons. His clothing was of simple cotton with light leather armor, no doubt to protect from animals or would be bandits, and in his hand was a purple mage’s staff.

Roman was vastly different in Virgil’s eyes. His once sun kissed skin was paler, no longer able to spend his hours outside with made up adventures. He was taller too, when he used to once be a head shorter than the mage. Despite his captivity, his arms and thighs were muscular, his only exercise having been push ups and squats as a way to remain healthy and take away some of the boredom in his imprisonment. 

Neither had been prepared to find the other handsome, not after years of clinging to childhood memories.

“Why not?” Virgil asked again, climbing through the window and into the room. “Do you not miss your family? Your friends? Me?” The very idea that his friend had not missed him in all their years apart filled Virgil with sorrow. 

“Of course I missed it. Missed you.” There had not been a day that went by where Roman didn’t think about the people he was taken from. Of life outside his tower. Of his best friend.

“Then come with me. You can be free!” Virgil urged, reaching out his hand for Roman to take. But the tower’s prisoner however, shied away from it. 

“I can’t-”

“Why not!?”

“I’m cursed!” 

Silence fell over the two at Roman’s admission. The air charged with tension as Virgil stared wide eyed at the other. 

“I’m cursed.” Roman repeated, his arms squeezing tighter around himself. “That’s why I was taken away and locked up here.” 

“What kind of curse?” The young mage asked, his brow furrowed in concern. 

“Upon my fifteenth summer…” Roman closed his eyes and breathed in deep. The details of his curse haunted him since the day he learned it. The words memorized in his head. “If I were to touch the earth… devastation would fall upon the land.” His eyes opened again, tears beading at the corners as he took in a shaky breath. “Death will reign and the air will fill with screams.”

Virgil was at a loss for words, his mouth opening and closing as he struggled to process what was told to him. “But-” he began at last, a frown stretched on his lips. “It is your twenty-first summer now.. Maybe it’s no longer working?” Surely a curse based on a certain age faded away when the date had passed without it activating? 

“I- I don’t know. I’m not sure if we should take the risk.” Roman had lost track of time long ago, so the knowledge that he was twenty-one was devastating. He knew he had been locked away for years, he had been ten when they took him, but knowing he had been gone for eleven? He lost so much time. Sacrificed it to keep his homeland safe. Did he dare risk the chance to see? If the curse wasn’t broken, he’d have sacrificed his childhood for nothing. But if it was broken, he had a chance to live a life again.

“Is there any way to find out without risking everyone’s lives?” he asked and for the first time, hope began to bloom within him. 

“I know a spell.” Virgil said, and that hope grew. “It’s meant for detecting cursed objects, but it should work on people too.” The young mage lifted his staff and pointed it at his friend, muttering the incantation low under his breath. The staff glowed a soft purple light as the magic flowed, encasing Roman in its aura. When the incantation finished, the glow faded away. That caused Virgil to smile, the implication of which made the hope grow enormously. “You’re not still glowing, so pretty sure you’re not cursed anymore.” 

The news caused relieved tears to fall from Roman’s eyes. He fell to his knees and wept, body shaking with emotion. Virgil kneeled before him and placed a comforting hand to his back. When Roman managed to compose himself, the two went back to the window. Virgil casted his levitation spell upon himself before climbing out the window. As he floated in the air, he held his hand out to Roman. This time, he took it.

Held in the mage’s arms, they gently lowered down to the ground and as Roman took his first step, the reality of everything hit him once more. He was free.

He was _free_.

“Take me away from here.” he gasped, tightening his hold on Virgil. Virgil helped him onto the horse and together they rode through the forest. 

The return home was met with shock and wonderment, his family in awe to see him again as old friends cheered. His village celebrated, rejoicing in the return of their stolen child. It was a night of merrymaking and feasting, and Roman’s heart was full in a way it had not been in a very long time. All thanks to his old friend who had once been so afraid of his own shadow. The two reunited companions danced and laughed together all through the night, drunk on happiness and mead. They were filled with a love that was both old and new. And as the dawn of a new day rose, they kissed.   
  
Together they lived happily ever after.

Until tragedy befell.

It was slow at first, unknown to anyone until it was too late. Graves opened by the claws of rotting hands and newly slain soldiers rose hours later. The dead walked again, but as soulless husks that craved the flesh of the living. Weapons seemed useless against them, neither arrow nor swing of the sword could slow them down. Not unless one managed to cleave the head right off.   
  
Fire was another weakness learned, but hard to execute among the common folk. Many fell victim to the ravenous dead, only to return as more to the plagued horde. The King sent his knights, who’s armor helped protect them from the infectious bites, out to defend his kingdom and opened his castle doors to his people for protection. That was, those who were able to make their way there.

Too many didn’t.

Guilt consumed Roman and Virgil as they sat among the survivors, bunkered away in the castle walls. The very thing the once imprisoned man feared most had come true. They had been wrong. Virgil spent his waking hours trying to figure out what he did wrong. Had he miscasted? Was the spell ineffective on living beings? Was he not powerful enough to make it work? 

Roman drew into himself, curling away from others more and more each day. His friends that survived didn’t understand why and he was too ashamed to admit to them his connection to the devastation outside. His brother Remus, when he wasn’t doing his knightly duty and fighting the dead, did whatever he could to try and get him to talk and eat. Though he did not know it, he did provide comfort every time he returned from the battlefield alive. Roman did not think he could survive if he became the cause for the loss of his family.

Moons passed, and eventually Virgil’s search for answers caught the attention of his friend and mentor Logan. A wise mage who’s knowledge surpassed those older than himself. His wisdom went beyond magic and he noticed his friend acting stranger than his usual self. So he followed him as Virgil made a, what had become routine, trip to the royal library. Poured over as many books about curses as he could find, Virgil was unprepared for when Logan cornered him. “It seems obvious that dark magic is at play with this plague, but I had not come to the conclusion it was brought by a curse.” The older mage had said. “What brought you to this outcome?” 

Virgil felt panicked, afraid for Roman’s life should the wrong people learn. But Logan was his friend, and more knowledgeable in the ways of magic. He knew he needed help to stop the horror and save his beloved. However, he could not think to ask for it, not until he spoke with Roman. It was his secret to tell, not Virgil’s. “I can not tell you. Not yet.” he answered, silently begging his friend to not push him further. Thankfully, he didn’t and Virgil scrambled away to seek out his love.

Roman did not fare any better once Virgil told him what had happened. “What will we do?” he asked before worrying his lip. The guilt was overwhelming, but he did not wish to die. And if the wrong people learned of his curse, then he would surely be executed in the hope that it would end the nightmare. “Can he be trusted?”

“I trust him with my life.” The answer had come easy to the mage. “And I trust him with yours.” 

Roman grew quiet for a moment before he gave a nod of his head. “Okay, then we will tell him.” With the decision made, they retired for the night. They clung onto one another in their slumber, seeking out the other’s warmth and comfort to shield them from the unknown of tomorrow. It crept ever closer, ready to bare its fangs and pounce. They could only hope to be able to defend themselves when it came.

Roman was the first to wake upon morning, rising with the dawn like he had for all the years he had been locked away in his tower. He let the quiet sounds of the castle wash over him before he got up from the shared cot. Virgil stirred from his movements and silently watched him before getting up himself. Wordlessly, they came to an agreement and left to seek out Logan. He was found where Virgil had left him the night prior, away in the library and surrounded by books. The very books the younger mage had been looking through.

“Salutations.” he greeted them as they approached. “How are you faring this morning?”

“As well as we can, considering everything.” Virgil answered before sitting down across from him. Roman sat in the chair beside his love with his eyes cast down. He did not look up until Virgil took his hand and gave a reassuring squeeze. “I’ve come to talk to you about last night’s conversation.” 

“Ah.” Logan hummed, a knowing look gleaming in his eyes. “So he’s the one cursed.” The two lovers stiffened, eyes scanning around them to make sure no one else was within hearing range. “I see why you did not want to tell me at first.” 

“And I’d appreciate it if this knowledge does not leave between the three of us.” Virgil said in a hushed voice. “Who knows how others would react.” In truth they all knew quite well. And it was an outcome neither he nor Roman wished for. “We need your help.” he added, his shoulders sagged in defeat. “I am at a loss.”

“It would be imperative if you start at the beginning.” Logan said softly, for he was not unaffected by his friend’s pleas. He would do all he could. He just needed to know the details. Only then could he find a cure to the plague of living dead. Thus, Virgil and Roman told him all they could. Of Roman being taken, of learning about the curse, his imprisonment that last past the date mentioned, of Virgil’s failure to detect it. 

“Show me.” Logan requested with a frown upon his face. Virgil looked around them uneasily, but there was no other soul in the library at such an early hour. So with a sigh, he lifted his staff and casted the incantation, just as he did in the tower. Once more Roman was enveloped in a soft purple glow. Unlike before however, when the spell ceased, the glow remained. 

“How-” Both Roman and Virgil were surprised to see the glow. “It didn’t show before.”

“And you performed it exactly like that?” Logan inquired, studying the glow closely. 

“Yes! My stance and everything was the same.” The younger mage knew he had not changed a thing. He had worried before, that he somehow messed it up. But it worked perfectly now, with no changes on his part. Logan hummed thoughtfully, brows furrowed as he considered the information given to him.

“You said you were imprisoned in a tower… correct?” he asked after a moment. Roman nodded silently. “Do you know who took you there? Or anything interesting to note about the tower?” He bit his lip at that, brows furrowed as he thought back. 

“I was taken by mercenaries.” he began, “But they brought me to a man in a long robe with stars on it. He brought me to the tower and told me of my fate.” Roman had not known the man, but he recalled the man had most certainly been a mage. And as a boy in that moment, he had thought he might have understood why Virgil had been so afraid of magic. As for the tower… he never gave his imprisoned home much attention after the first few moons. He had lived there so long he wasn’t sure he knew what would be interesting to note and what was just a part of it. “It had no doors or stairs. Just one large room with which I dwelled in. He flew us up to get inside the one window. I was never without food or water, nor clothes when I grew or the weather changed. I do not know if the mage provided while I slept or if the tower was magical. Though, it did glow at night.”  
  
“The man you speak of, he sounds like the King’s previous Royal Mage. He died a year ago.” Logan frowned as he spoke, seeming deeply troubled. “And if the Royal Mage was who imprisoned you…” He trailed off, leaving the two in apprehensive anticipation. Without a word, the older mage turned sharply on his heel and down an aisle of old tomes. Roman and Virgil looked at each other in confusion before following after. They hurried quickly to catch up, moving behind Logan as he mumbled half spoken theories into the air. They moved deeper and deeper into the library, until finally he stopped short. 

The two lovers nearly stumbled into him at the rudeness of it all, but managed to stop just short of it. “Where is it…” Logan muttered, his eyes scanning the books that seemed so ancient that their spines seemed frail. “Aha!” In a flash, he removed a booklet, so thin and small compared to the thicker volumes that surrounded it. To the point that neither of the other two had even noticed it. With renewed fever, Logan skimmed through the pages until he came across an illustration. “Is this it?” he asked, turning it over for both men to see. Sure enough, it was the tower.

“I- yes! How-?” Roman began, his eyes wide in shock.   
  
“I was afraid of that.” With those foreboding words, he shut the book with a snap and returned it to its rightful hidden place. “That tower is of ancient magic. Runes carved into the stone. It was meant to be a hidden storage for cursed artifacts, nullifying their effects while within.” Virgil cursed at that, running a hand through his dark curls. Roman frowned and looked between the two in confusion and concern.

“Wha- what does that mean?” he asked, though hesitant. He wasn’t sure if he really wanted the answers. 

“It means that the tower was why Virgil’s initial casting gave a negative result. And why you were put there to begin with.” Logan explained. “So long as you were in there, the curse couldn’t happen.” 

All color drained from Roman’s face, despair clinging onto him. “So it truly is my fault,” he whispered, his lips trembling. Virgil rushed to wrap his arms around him before his legs gave out, holding him to his chest.   
  
“No! If anything it’s my fault,” the young mage claimed, running a hand through Roman’s hair. “You hadn’t wanted to leave but I encouraged it. I had just missed you so much and searched so long for you- I hadn’t wanted to give you up.” Finding Roman had been the one thing to drive him over the years. And when he did, he didn’t want to go back empty handed. “Is there anything we can do?” he asked, looking back at Logan.

The older mage frowned in thought. “Without knowing anything about the curse itself, there isn’t much we can do. Except perhaps, return him to the tower.” Silence fell over them. Virgil stared at Logan in disbelief while Roman looked down at his feet. 

“He’s right.”

Roman’s voice was quiet, but it might as well have been a gong in the quiet air. Virgil flinched before holding the other tighter, afraid that if he loosened his hold then Roman would be spirited away. 

“There’s gotta be some other way-”

“No, Virgil.” Despite the dismissal, Roman clung on just as much. “If the tower was keeping the curse at bay, then it’s our only hope at stopping all of this.” He did not want to return to that place, go back to the isolation, but it was a price he would pay if it kept the people he loved safe. He would miss them all though.  
  
“Then I’m going with you!” Virgil’s words caused Roman to snap his head up, gazing into the dark eyes of his love. “I won’t leave you again. Not ever.” the mage vowed. Tears welled in his eyes, slipping silently as he surged up to kiss his beloved. He should tell Virgil no, to not waste his life away being locked in a tower. But Roman wanted to be selfish. His life was ripped from him a second time, surely he could be allowed the one comfort?   
  
“Ahm, right then.” Logan coughed awkwardly, reminding the lovers of his presence. “You should get what belongings you have ready and say your goodbyes. I’ll meet you at the gate by sunset.”   
  
“Wait, you’re coming as well?” Virgil asked, blinking in confusion. Logan gave him a hard stare before sighing.

“Yes, it would be wise to have at least one other skilled mage accompanying you. To assure you arrive safely. I’d rather not have a friend of mine die if I am able to help it.” It was a rather sweet gesture, to which Virgil was thankful for. Though he was not particularly fond of risking the other’s life for their journey. “Furthermore, someone will need to properly explain why the dead cease rising when all of this is over.” Virgil couldn’t really argue against that logic.

“Very well. We shall see you at sunset.” With that, the two left the older mage to conduct his own business. They did as instructed, gathering their rations and few belongings they had managed to bring with them when they fled to the castle. Goodbyes were.. Another matter entirely. Roman could not bring himself to tell his friends and family what he was planning to do. He was sure Remus would try to stop him if he did. So he wrote it all down in a letter and gave it to a maid, asking her to deliver it to his family in the morning. Virgil did the same for those he wished to say farewell too.  
  
By then they would be long gone. Virgil was the only one who would know where the tower was, having tracked it down to begin with. So his family wouldn’t be able to follow. 

When sunset came, leaving the sky glowing in purples and pinks, they headed off to the gates. Logan awaited them there with a hose by his side, carrying a pack of supplies it seemed and holding a scroll. Upon seeing them, he handed the scroll to the guards that were there and waited as they read from it. Without a word, the guards opened the gate, allowing all three -plus the horse- to leave. 

“What was on the scroll?” Roman asked after they made it some distance from the castle. The ground was covered in headless corpses and burned bodies. 

“Orders from the King to allow us entry out.” the mage answered simply. “We are on a mission to put a stop to this plague.” 

“You told the King!?” Virgil exclaimed, his head turning sharply, half expecting royal soldiers to come running after them. To chase them down and execute Roman and perhaps himself as well. 

“I told him that it was the work of a dark curse and that I had a plan to neutralize it.” Logan said calmly. “I gave no detail beyond that and he did not ask for it. He merely allowed my request to see to my plan and to take whoever I thought necessary for it.” His gaze seemed to soften as he looked at them both. “I would never do anything to cause you harm my friend.”  
  
Virgil ducked his head sheepishly and muttered an apology, but Logan waved him off. “Let us make haste.”

Their journey was long and grueling. They traveled far and rested little, trying to keep as much distance as they could with the dead that prowled like predators. Whenever they could not keep undetected, Roman and Virgil would ride upon the horse while Logan flew with his magic, the two mages casting fire spells to protect their little party until they were able to get away. The dead were thankfully quite slow.

It took weeks of following Virgil’s old maps he had gathered and wrote on in his search for Roman before they came upon the forest where he found the tower. The following day, they found the stone structure itself. Roman looked upon it with misery, but a hand placed in his pulled him away. “I’m with you.” Virgil reminded him gently, his eyes full of love. “No matter what, I will be by your side.” He squeezed their hands together before lifting them up to kiss Roman’s knuckles. 

With a shaky breath, Roman nodded his head. Casting the levitation spell, Virgil lifted them both up while Logan did the same with their belongings. Up and up they went until they returned to the window that had been Roman’s only connection to the world. He hesitated at first before reaching for the windowsill and climbing inside. The moment he did so, the stones glowed like they did in all the nights he had spent within the tower’s walls. 

Virgil followed quickly behind, worrying his bottom lip as he observed the glow. When it faded away, he let out a held breath before turning around to collect their floating things inside. Once everything had made it in, Logan followed up. He said not a word as he held his staff and performed the detection spell. Just as it did when Virgil first tried those moons ago, Roman did not remain glowing.   
  
“So far, it appears that it is working.” Logan remarked. “Though I will know for sure as I make my way back to the castle.” 

“Will you be safe?” Roman asked in concern. He had come to know Logan in their journey and began to view him as a friend just as Virgil did. And after everything he had done for them, he did not wish for anything bad to happen to him.

“If this works, it will be a safe journey. If not, I have my magic to keep me safe.” That was the best that could be done. “I wish you two the best, and I shall visit.” he added in as much of a goodbye as he seemed willing to make. He then turned back to the window and levitated himself back to the ground. The two watched as he climbed upon the horse and headed back into the forest.   
  
“Back here in the end.” Roman sighed once Logan was no longer in view.   
  
“But this time, not alone.” Virgil reminded, wrapping his arms around his love. A small smile graced the other’s lips at that. 

“Yeah.” he agreed softly, turning in Virgil’s hold so that he could face him. “Together until the end?” 

“Until our dying breaths.” 

The two kissed as the sun set. The life of freedom for Roman had been brief but the new life born of its ashes was one they could live with. So long as they were together. And that was how they remained. Together forever, until the end of their days. 


End file.
